READING IN THE WILD

Author:  Donalyn Miller 

Genre:  Professional, Companion Book

Published:  2013

Personal Rating:  4/5 (very good)

Format:  Book

Yearly Count:  24

From Goodreads:

Reading in the Wild offers solid advice and strategies on how to develop, encourage and assess key lifelong reading habits,  including dedicating time for reading, planning for future reading, and defining oneself as a reader.  It contains accessible strategies, ideas, tips, lesson plans and management tools along with lists of recommended books.

This a companion book to The Book Whisperer.  It contains all the details needed to run a reading classroom.  It's filled with Miller's experience and has much value for a novice.  

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ANOTHER DAY

Author:  David Levithan

Genre:  YA Fiction, Every Day Companion

Published:  2015

Personal Rating:  3.5/5 (good)

Format/Narrator:  Audiobook/

Kathleen McInerney

Yearly Count:  29

From NetGalley:

Every day is the same for Rhiannon. She has accepted her life, convinced herself that she deserves her distant, temperamental boyfriend, Justin, even established guidelines by which to live: Don’t be too needy. Avoid upsetting him. Never get your hopes up.

Until the morning everything changes. Justin seems to see her, to want to be with her for the first time, and they share a perfect day—a perfect day Justin doesn’t remember the next morning. Confused, depressed, and desperate for another day as great as that one, Rhiannon starts questioning everything. Then, one day, a stranger tells her that the Justin she spent that day with, the one who made her feel like a real person . . . wasn’t Justin at all.

I didn't remember all the happenings of Every Day, so this didn't seem too much like a rehash for me. Therefore, it was an enjoyable YA book.  It has a good message regarding looking at a person's inner being versus their outer appearance.  And, I liked the ending.

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My thanks go to Random House and NetGalley for providing me with the eGalley.

THE ROSIE EFFECT

Author:  Graeme Simsion

Genre:  Women's Fiction, Rosie Sequel

Published:  2014

Personal Rating:  3.25/5 (just okay +)

Format/Narrator:  Audiobook/Dan O'Grady

Yearly Count:  13

From NetGalley:

Don Tillman and Rosie Jarman are back. The Wife Project is complete, and Don and Rosie are happily married and living in New York. But they’re about to face a new challenge because— surprise!—Rosie is pregnant.

Don sets about learning the protocols of becoming a father, but his unusual research style gets him into trouble with the law. Fortunately his best friend Gene is on hand to offer advice: he’s left Claudia and moved in with Don and Rosie.

As Don tries to schedule time for pregnancy research, getting Gene and Claudia to reconcile, servicing the industrial refrigeration unit that occupies half his apartment, helping Dave the Baseball Fan save his business, and staying on the right side of Lydia the social worker, he almost misses the biggest problem of all: he might lose Rosie when she needs him the most.

I have mixed feelings about this book.  I really liked Don and all his efforts, but I did not like Rosie at all.  She rubbed me the wrong way.  I also didn't like some of the events that took place against Don.  This was not a pleasant read for me.

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My thanks go to Simon & Schuster & NetGalley for providing me with this eGalley.

   

NO SAFE HOUSE

Author:  Linwood Barclay

Genre:  Thriller, Sequel to No Time for Goodbye

Published:  2014

Personal Rating:  2.75/5 (eh +)

Format/Narrator:  Audiobook/Brian O'Neill &

Graham Winton

Yearly Count:  5

In the same neighborhood as the Archers, a retired couple is murdered for no apparent reason.  Soon after, the daughter, Grace, chooses to rebel against her parents and date a wayward boy.  Trouble ensues.

When I saw another Barclay book in audio that I hadn't listened to yet, I was a happy person.  He usually writes with a family theme and that's different from most other thriller books I read, so I enjoy the variety it brings.  Unfortunately, this one didn't work for me.  Can't say specifically, other than it seemed too far from reality.

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LOVE, STARGIRL

Author:  Jerry Spinelli

Genre:  YA fiction, Sequel

Published:  2007

Personal Rating:  2/5 (not enjoyable)

Format/Narrator:  Audiobook/Mandy Siegfried

Yearly Count:  96

Apparently this is the sequel to Stargirl, which I did not read.  Oops!  Anyway . . . Stargirl moves with her family and leaves behind her whole life.  It's written in epistolary style as Stargirl writes the longest letter to an ex-boyfriend.

I didn't enjoy this.  It didn't keep my attention, and I definitely didn't care for a character or two.  I just didn't buy in.  Maybe if I was a teen I'd enjoy it.  Who knows.  

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THE OFF SEASON

Author:  Catherine Gilbert Murdock

Genre:  YA Fiction, Dairy Queen Sequel

Published:  2008

Personal Rating:  3/5 (just okay)

Format/Narrator:  Audiobook/Natalie Moore

Yearly Count:  73


Eleventh grader, DJ, experiences realistic high school and family angst.

I did not buy into the family angst at all!  Actually, I believed the event, but not how it was handled, so it was hard to like the book.

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